Tag: Year 5

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This week, though outlets and public officials are reluctant to acknowledge it, the news really highlights just how many different systems are broken at once. It’s rough to watch, and it’s even rougher when everyone acts like it’s no big deal. But it’s not just you; it is a big deal. And as always, I’m here if I can help.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a filibuster!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

We’re seeing an exponential increase of nonsense on the Election Rejection front, and it does feel like this will get worse before it gets better.  Here’s what happened this week:

• Election Rejection Eruption. As of this week,former Trump aide and overall garbage human Steve Bannon has officially pissed off so many people with his flagrant refusal to testify to the House panel investigating January 6 that the whole House voted to hold him in criminal contempt.  As I mentioned last week, President Biden already gave his blessing on that tactic, saying that his Justice Department should go after anyone who ignores the committee’s subpoena. There were also leaked details this week about planning done by the sitting Congresspeople as well as White House officials in the days leading up to the insurrection.  Needless to say, there’s a lot to watch here.

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We also saw some Biden Rebuilding news, particularly regarding immigration.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Immigration Updates. The Washington Post ran a story this week saying that border arrests were at an all-time high in FY 21, which would be a pretty disturbing indictment of Biden’s first six months in office.  But the Migration Policy Institute–a nonpartisan and highly respected authority on migration–says this view of the data is an oversimplification of patterns caused by high desperation during the pandemic. Either way, there was also significant news about CBP misconduct this week; the Human Rights Watch released internal reports of staff abusing detainees and a House investigative report revealed a flawed internal disciplinary system for addressing these types of agent infractions.

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Your New Normal:

• Current Senate Dysfunction.  On Wednesday, all 50 Senate Republicans voted to block consideration of a supposedly bipartisan voting rights bill, highlighting the need to revisit the filibuster discussion. Surprisingly, this appears to be something of a final straw for Biden, who is now saying he would be open to eliminating the filibuster.  That said, this opinion somewhat contextualizes the way reconciliation negotiations are going as I type this. As he finalizes negotiations, Biden is signaling that many key provisions will be cut to appease Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema; though he appears to believe he can achieve things by executive order, that may or may not be successful.  Speaking of Sinema, she also received five resignations from her own advisors this week for her actions, who told her that she was “one of the principal obstacles to progress” on their way out.

• Worker Conditions.* Last week, I wrote a quick summary of the ongoing supply chain issues.  In this last week of Striketober, I would be remiss if I didn’t do the same for ongoing worker condition news. This is an unprecedented time for many industries, as unsafe working conditions–and to some extent, labor shortages–combine with gilded age rule enforcement and practices to create untenable employment situations.  As a result, people are quitting jobs in record numbers, and we’ve seen a sharp increase in organized strikes as well.  Right now, over 10,000 workers at Deere & Co are striking for safer work conditions and fair pay.  Hollywood workers also nearly went on strike last week, and though a deal was reached, it’s possible the recent fatality on the set of Rust due to unsafe working conditions will mean a strike happens regardless. Workers at Kellogg’s have continuously been on strike all month, marking the third food conglomerate with workers protesting unsafe conditions for low pay since July.  And in New York, desperate taxi drivers are staging a hunger strike as part of ongoing protest of the taxi medallion bubble.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  After some initial confusion, because experts didn’t agree about whether the second shot should be a different vaccine or the same one, the CDC officially recommended a mix-and-match approach to boosters last Wednesday and subsequently officially approved Moderna and J&J boosters in general.  The FDA is also considering authorizing boosters for everyone over 40, though that will wait until after the pediatric vaccine rollout.  And speaking of the pediatric vaccine, significantly more details have been shared about how its rollout will work, and we’re now expecting implementation may begin as soon as early next month.

• Roe v. Why Are You Like This (cont again). Though the Supreme Court yet again refused to block the terrible Texas abortion law like the Department of Justice requested, they did agree to grant expedited review next week–which, given the current court constellation, is vaguely terrifying. We’re also starting to see projected nightmare scenarios play out in other states–in Oklahoma, a woman was convicted of manslaughter because she experienced a miscarriage at 15 weeks. I would be remiss if I didn’t stress that this type of prosecution is definitely a violation of Roe v. Wade, in addition to being an unconscionable violence against people who just experienced a traumatic loss.

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The Good:

• Recent Medical Resilience. Despite the paragraph above, it was actually a decent week for medical news. Rachel Levine became the country’s first female four-star officer of the health corps, which is pretty cool. (She’s also the first transgender four-star officer, but given the TERFy week we’ve had I figured I would lead with the female part.) In other cool health news, in New York, surgeons successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a human body for the first time ever. Progress!

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve the October doge Olympics as well as a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me sunshine up on the shelf!

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Folks, thanks for bearing with me through a rough week. Your reward is… well actually, the news is pretty terrible this week too, for the most part, so I don’t even have a good consolation prize. Better luck next week!

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a debt ceiling!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup In Aisle 45:

This was a pretty quiet week for Election Rejection news, as most eyes were on current Congressional drama.  Here’s what happened:

• Election Rejection Collection.  There were some stories this week about gerrymandering in Texas; the state released new districting maps that appear pretty blatantly designed to favor white voters.  Similarly, some of the Facebook whistleblowing hubbub relates back to the role it played on January 6, though that testimony is of course much broader than that because Facebook’s misdeeds are too. And Trump aides are already dodging subpoenas in the House’s January 6 investigation.  But for the most part, this was a fairly quiet week for election rejection.

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This was also a relatively quiet week for Biden Rebuilding news, though there were a few odds and ends.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Deportation Détente.  Immigration remains in the news for another week, though only some of that is Biden’s doing.  The Department of Homeland Security released new arrest and deportation guidelines, the main takeaway being that arrests of low-threat undocumented individuals are now discouraged.  I’m sure this was in response to public pressure over the Haitian population, but I’m a bit perturbed by the fact that it took this administration nine months to get to “don’t arrest Grandma just for being here.”  Meanwhile, in the Senate, Tom Cotton tried to use an emergency stopgap funding bill to prohibit funding to Afghan refugees because of who he is as a person.  Thankfully, that measure got overturned by fifty senators who presumably wanted to sleep at night.

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Your New Normal:

• Current Senate Dysfunction.  You may recall that last week, everyone was worried that we would be plunged into a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic. The good news is, Congress ended up passing a partial stopgap on Thursday, so that didn’t happen.  (That said, the stopgap is a limited and temporary measure that will still leave parts of the government furloughed.) The bad news is, the debt ceiling issue is still in play, despite the stopgap measure, and if we don’t fix it we’ll start seeing consequences as soon as October 18. Between the high stakes and the fact that the infrastructure vote was postponed, Congress this week was pretty much all about the debt ceiling. But it was still incredibly dysfunctional–Republicans want the Democrats to deal with the debt problem through budget reconciliation so that the GOP won’t be involved, which the Democrats don’t want to do for a variety of reasons. So a bill passed in the House, but in the Senate we keep seeing the Democrats introduce bills that the Republicans then filibuster so that the Senate can’t fix the debt stuff. This is presumably so that during election season, the GOP can campaign on the fact that the Democrats fixed the catastrophic debt stuff, which apparently is a bad thing to half the country. Also, for some reason, everybody’s talking about a trillion dollar coin? I don’t even know, y’all, the last week in Congress has been weird.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  COVID news has some dark landmarks this week.  We officially passed 700,000 deaths in the United States, and apparently have also officially seen more COVID deaths in 2021 than we did in all of 2020.  But there were also a few stories about the effectiveness of vaccine mandates for increasing vaccination rates, which is kind of nice to see.  And Youtube officially started banning antivaccination misinformation, which is definitely nice to see. 

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The Good:

• Recent Healthcare Resilience. For yet another week, I have good news about how people are responding to the reproductive rights crisis in Texas. Perhaps in partial response to a massive women’s march in DC, the Biden administration undid a Trump-era provision that prohibited clinics from providing abortion services. But I’m excited to have a second health story as well: in groundbreaking global news, today the WHO endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine.

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve these doggos at a Sox game and a bear interest piece about 480 Otis as well as a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me your thoughts about Fat Bear Week!

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After a brief break, the news is back to being a bad parody of itself–seriously, folks, I couldn’t make half of this stuff up. But here we are, and I haven’t found an escape hatch from this timeline yet, so here we will remain. Which means you know where to find me, if anybody needs anything.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a Joe Manchin!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

We do have some Election Rejection news this week, but it’s a bit of a grab bag.  Here’s what happened:

• Election Rejection Collection.  Okay, this one kind of runs the gamut again. There was a rally for the January 6 rally in DC this weekend, which unsurprisingly had a lot more proactive policing this time, and equally unsurprisingly had fewer participants as a result. There were also some stories about Mike Pence and his sad, sidelong peer over the gates of Treasonville last fall– presumably as part of the news about Trump’s head general ahead of yet another tell-all book about the Trump administration.  And California’s governor successfully survived yet another recall election, which marks his fifth in four years.  (I would ask why California republicans have nothing better to do, but honestly, I don’t want them to have anything better to do, if Texas is any indication.)

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I’m pretty disgusted by this week’s Biden Rebuilding news, and we should be demanding that this administration do better.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Distressing Deportations.  The Biden administration is showing a marked mismanagement of border policy yet again this week, this time regarding Haitian displaced persons.The administration began deporting people via plane back to Haiti on Sunday, ignoring the fact that Haiti cannot accommodate them–remember, the President was assassinated in July and they had a devastating hurricane in August–and many of these people haven’t been living in Haiti for over a decade.  Then after this began, footage began surfacing of border patrol officers on horseback  brandishing whips at Haitian migrants, and I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Haiti, the oldest black republic in the world, was founded by slave revolution.

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Your New Normal:

• Spectacular Senate Dysfunction.  Okay, this next bit is highly technical and also sucks, so bear with me. The budget reconciliation bill, which we’ve been talking about being dysfunctional and stalled for weeks, is technically not an ordinary bill; that’s among the reasons it can be passed without dealing with filibuster nonsense. But it literally has to pass on a particular deadline, or we have a government shutdown in the middle of a pandemic.  Nonetheless the Democrats still have to make it to fifty votes, and multiple moderates of their own party are refusing to vote for it, again. It’s further complicated by GOP threats regarding the debt ceiling, which as I understand it would be legitimately very dangerous for our current economy if carried out, and intersect with the budget process in a number of ways.  And in less dire but still very frustrating news, the Senate parliamentarian semi-arbitrarily decided that the reconciliation bill can’t include a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and I seriously cannot overstate how wrong she is about whether immigration is “incidental” to the economy.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  There were some highlights this week, which I suppose is something.  In vaccine news, Pfizer is apparently ready to submit data for emergency approval of vaccines for folks ages 5-11; the FDA also endorsed booster shots for elderly and immunocompromised Americans.  In social news, census data also shows that COVID relief impacted national poverty rates. But most of this week’s COVID news… well it’s bad, Jim. The U.S. hit the gruesome milestone of 1 in every 500 Americans dying from COVID, disproportionately in places with low vaccination rates and among people of color. Our hospitals are overwhelmed in many places, especially in the South.  Yet a quarter of eligible adults refuse to vaccinate, and GOP officials increasingly are publicly fighting vaccine mandates, despite the fact that experts increasingly are saying that mandates are the only way out of this mess. It’s like we’re all trapped in a lifeboat with people who insist that they have a constitutional right to poke holes in the lifeboat.  Thanks, GOP, I hate it.

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The Good:

• Roe v. Why Are You Like This Reprise (again). There are more updates on this front, and it’s kind of good and kind of “are you kidding me.” Attorney General Garland, following up on his lawsuit against the bill, has moved for an injunction while the case is pending. (This part is not surprising, although it is edifying.) A doctor in Texas, Dr. Alan Braid, also wrote a public op-ed about the fact that he violated the law, essentially writing “come at me, bro” in giant neon letters. And sure enough, he’s already being sued, but neither plaintiff even lives in Texas, because standing is more of a suggestion under the new law apparently, and both plaintiffs are disbarred attorneys. In fact, one of the two plaintiffs is still serving out a criminal incarceration for felony tax evasion and is seeking $100,000 in “damages,” spelling out all kinds of things in a brief that is one wild ride, let me tell you.

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve sukkot made for people’s pets and a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me plants I can use for Megabit’s sukkah!

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This was a very eventful week, and a lot of it was even promising! (I suggest you don’t think too hard about the fact that people bringing lawsuits about illegal things and requiring humans to get basic vaccines is promising. Just take the endorphins and call it a day.)

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an indictment!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

We do have some Election Rejection news this week, but it’s a bit of a grab bag.  Here’s what happened:

• Election Rejection Collection.  We have a random collection of bits and bobs regarding election rejection this week, and they pretty much run the gamut.  On the scary end of things, we have that one dude who was picked up outside DNC headquarters in D.C. with a bunch of knives and swastikas, although apparently he didn’t have any ranged weapons on him.  Meanwhile, several advocacy organizations have filed lawsuits intending to challenge Texas’s new voter suppression law, and I’ll definitely keep folks posted on that one.

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• Modest Vaccine Mandates.   This week, Biden took some very decisive action on the current pandemic. The main headline is that he issued a federal vaccine mandate that requires all federal workers, as well as many healthcare providers, to get the vaccine within the next 75 days. He also passed a separate mandate requiring  all businesses with 100+ staff to require either testing or vaccination for their workers and grant paid time off during vaccination. Additionally, he provided incentives for schools to require masks, and though Biden’s provisions stopped short of requiring vaccination to fly, his top infectious disease expert implied that might be on the table as a future order. When asked about the fact that Republicans are already threatening to sue him over this (because of course they are), Biden apparently simply replied, “Have at it.”

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Your New Normal:

• Your Standard Senate Dysfunction. Biden’s decisive action does make the mess in the Senate look extra bad, but we’re pretty much just seeing the status quo there.  The short version is that Joe Manchin is earning his title as Country’s Most Useless Democrat, announcing that he’s just gonna refuse to vote for his own party’s reconciliation bill because he doesn’t like the deadline and he doesn’t like the compromise reached. So now it’s an open question whether they’ll manage to pass anything by the internal deadlines, since reconciliation needs votes from all 50 Democrats in order to go through.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  As was foretold by prophecy, pandemic unemployment benefits expired this week, but our workforce is still out of whack from the pandemic–which means the end of these benefits is likely to be rough for both individual workers and the whole economy.  Meanwhile, cases in some places are so high that hospitals are reinstituting crisis standards of care. On one side of the country, Los Angeles became the first major district in the nation to mandate vaccination in schools for all students twelve and older. On the other, in Florida, an appeals court hearing the mask mandate court case decided to reinstitute the mandate ban on a temporary basis.

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The Good:

• Roe v. Why Are You Like This Reprise. It’s a silver lining, but we saw relatively quick actual response to last week’s SCOTUS nighttime nightmare adventure, which allowed a blatantly unconstitutional law to take effect in Texas. More specifically, Attorney General Merrick Garland filed a lawsuit against the bill on the grounds that it illegally infringes on constitutional rights, and it’s my hope that he’ll get a stay in place on the new law relatively quickly. In the meantime, as I mentioned last week, Indivisible has advocacy suggestions for this issue if you’re looking for things you can do as well.

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this opinionated duck and a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me your thoughts on current events!

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By this point, it’s late enough into Biden’s tenure to see what normal looks like under a competent administration, and frankly, normal under a competent politician still kind of sucks. There is a lot of work to do, and the news this week really highlights that. I’ll have some suggestions for response below, and I’m here if people need anything.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an indictment!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

After a bit of a break, we’re back with more Election Rejection news, and it didn’t get any better during its brief time off.  Here’s what happened:

• Updates from Texas.  After a protracted and dramatic legislative battle that involved, among other things, Texas Democrats going awol for months, the Texas legislature managed to pass its godawful voting suppression bill this week.  Needless to say, between this bill and SB8, which I’ll talk more about below, it’s a pretty dark week for Texas.  Indivisible has some suggestions for action on the federal level to protect voting rights, and also has more information about their work in Texas specifically.

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There are a few bits and bobs of Biden Rebuilding news, but they’re mostly about the pandemic.  Here’s what I have for you:

• Administration Updates.  As was foretold by prophecy, pandemic unemployment benefits expired this week, but our workforce is still out of whack from the pandemic–which means the end of these benefits is likely to be rough for both individual workers and the whole economy.  This issue may be partially addressed in the new budget bill, which should be considered in the Senate in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, Biden also published a pandemic preparedness plan for the next pandemic–though he’s probably jumping the gun a bit on that one, considering that we’re still in the middle of one.

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Your New Normal:

• Climate Change Crises.*  Natural disasters continue to be a rough and constant presence.  As I mentioned at the top of last week, Hurricane Ida, a category 4 hurricane, touched down in New Orleans on Sunday, leaving nearly 1 million people without power for the foreseeable future.  True to that prediction, the power remained off in many places, and some parts of New Orleans have begun evacuating due to heat-related concerns. But after Ida left Louisiana, it went on to wreak major climate change devastation in the American Northeast, creating tornadoes and floods and killing at least 41 people. Meanwhile, fires raged in California and near Lake Tahoe again this week, highlighting the fact that climate-related disasters are happening all over the country with alarming frequency. A new study also suggests that people of color are disproportionately impacted by this phenomenon.

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  COVID news is a bit quiet this week, aside from the above.  The WHO identified a new variant of interest, tentatively called ‘Mu,’ though Delta appears to remain the dominant strain in the U.S. Two FDA officials have resigned this week, apparently because they are frustrated by Biden’s decision regarding boosters, and there were also a few stories about pandemic aid that has not been distributed properly.But Biden’s booster plan might not be enacted in full anyway, because it’s looking like only Pfizer recipients will be able to get them.

• Roe v. Why Are You Like This.   This was a bad, bad week for reproductive rights.In the dead of night on Wednesday SCOTUS released an unsigned 5-4 opinion that permited enactment of an unprecedented new Texas abortion law, SB8. For those folks just tuning in, SB8 is scary even for a six-week abortion bill–and those, by the way, are blatantly unconstitutional under our current system, which is why people are so mad that SCOTUS let it through. But what makes SB8 unique is its bizarre McCarthy-style tattling clauses, which permit random residents to report and even sue each other over perceived violations. Thankfully, unlike the Supreme Court, other entities are stepping up and doing their job, as a state judge has already enjoined civilian lawsuits under the new law and webhosting entity GoDaddy has refused to host the online reporting site. Congress has also signaled that they may pass legislation to protect reproductive rights at the federal level. Indivisible has advocacy suggestions for this issue as well.

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The Good:

• Black Lives Still Matter. A grand jury indicted three police officers and two EMTs this week, concluding that their actions in 2019–namely, administering a chokehold and forcibly injecting ketamine–resulted in Elijah McClain’s death. There are thirty-two indictments total, and each defendant has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide at minimum. It’s not ‘good’ news, per se, but it definitely needed to happen, and it’s what we’ve got on tap this week.

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this story about an enterprising doggo and a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me apples and also honey!

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Well readers, I’m back, and just in time for yet another clearance sale here at Bargain Basement Dystopiaville. The writers have really jumped the shark this week, so I recommend reading this with your comfort food of choice.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a procedural hurdle!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

Weirdly, and a bit concerningly, there isn’t really any Election Rejection news from the last couple of weeks.  That said, there has still been plenty of Biden Rebuilding news amid the rest of this week’s cacophony.  Here’s what has happened:

• Administration Updates.  This was a busy couple of weeks for the House.  On the Biden package front, they managed to advance both the infrastructure and budget bill, and passed the budget bill on Tuesday. The infrastructure bill is expected to pass in late September, though whether we hit more roadblocks before then is anybody’s guess.  The John Lewis Act, which restores and preserves a number of federal voting rights, passed this past week in the House as well. Unfortunately, that last one is expected to languish in the Senate, which is kind of its own commentary.

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Your New Normal:

• Climate Change Crises.*  Natural disasters continue to arise at a very unnatural clip as climate change, well, changes our baseline for weather.  In Tennessee, flash flooding caused major devastation outside of Nashville on Saturday.  This was immediately followed by a cat 4 hurricane touching down in New Orleans on Sunday, leaving nearly 1 million people without power for the foreseeable future.  The storm made landfall on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, because irony is dead, and almost certainly was exacerbated by climate change.

• Supreme Court Screwup. Unfortunately, the other new mainstay to pop up in the news this week sucks too.  The Supreme Court, illustrating why appointments matter, temporarily blocked reinstatement of a terrible and probably illegal Trump era asylum policy known as Remain-in-Mexico, only to pull a 180 and order the policy reinstated in its final opinion.  I would need to do a deeper immigration law dive than I’m prepared to do to really unpack just how kangaroo this court ruling is, but it has serious consequences for families exercising their lawful right to seek asylum.  It’s sort of like if you had a stint with an awful boss who prohibited using the elevator and forced your whole team to climb seven flights of stairs every day.  Then when you got a new boss, they immediately said “that’s ridiculous, this building has elevators” and rescinded the policy.  But then your boss’s boss, who got hired by the first guy, declares it against company policy to go back to using the elevators, even though your office always used the elevators before your jerk boss banned them for no reason.  That’s kind of like what happened, except the elevators in this scenario are living in relative safety in the U.S., and the seven sets of stairs are living in a whole other country that doesn’t want you there and can’t necessarily guarantee your safety while you’re, y’know, definitionally fleeing for your life. 

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  COVID news is… well it’s not great on the whole, to be honest (though I do have some positive updates below).  The Supreme Court, keeping with the theme above, threw out the CDC eviction moratorium because, I don’t know, Reasons, which will leave a lot of people in rough spots when unemployment aid also ends this week.  Meanwhile, the EU is again restricting American travel to those who can show vaccination.  And I can’t say I blame them, given that we’re a country full of jackasses who refuse to take perfectly good vaccines even after they’re fully approved by the FDA, opting instead to ingest horse medication that’s not even an anti-viral drug.  .

• Updates on Afghanistan.  The other terrible news of the week, of course, is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, which has resulted in a surge of violence as U.S. and Afghan nationals attempt to flee.  On Thursday, a suicide bomber attacked Kabul airport, killing 170 people (including 13 American service members).  A subsequent attack was threatened on Saturday, prompting the U.S. embassy to encourage people to clear the area.  Today was the last day of U.S. evacuation due to a deadline set by the Taliban, according to the deadline the Taliban set, and 98 countries have agreed to take in Afghan refugees after the evacuation is complete.

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The Good:

• COVID Legal News. For all that this was a bad week for both COVID and court news, we did have some promising COVID legal developments. As I insinuated above, the Pfizer vaccine is officially fully approved, which opened the legal doors for vaccine mandates from all kinds of entities. Meanwhile, a Florida court ruled that schools may impose mask mandates, and the Biden administration is investigating states that prevent mask wearing in schools on the basis of disability rights. The action might end up being the basis of several other lawsuits around the country, so it’s an encouraging development.

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree that it’s more than enough. For making it through, you deserve lesser kudu scritches and a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a time turner and some Icy Hot!

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I don’t know about the rest of y’all, but I needed a nap even before I caught up on this week’s news. Then I read about the past week, and I needed a nap that lasted all season. Tragically, bears only hibernate in winter–but hey, at least we have the NNR!

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a voting law!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup In Aisle 45:

This week’s Election Rejection news feels… listless, if I had to characterize it. Here’s what I have for you this week:

• Insurrection Updates. The first Capitol rioter convicted of a felony was sentenced this week, though he received eight months’ incarceration rather than the eighteen months the prosecutor was seeking. In other Trump election court news, apparently I was pretty prescient with the Laugh Test comment, last week because attorneys who filed spurious election cases are now getting dragged through a sanctions hearing. Apparently, at least one is also refusing to follow rules for said proceeding, so we’ll see if any consequences happen. Of course, at least one election challenge is somehow still going, and Maricopa County just approved $3M to replace the voting machines that Cyber Ninja probably tampered with during the recount.

• Democrats Inaction. Moving from old election rejection to new, there were a number of different responses from Democrats to, y’know, everything this week. The Texas Democrats are still in DC as I type this, and though Biden gave a speech about voting rights he hasn’t really done much else. Vice President Harris has insinuated that something may be coming down the pike, but for now, it’s not really clear what organized action may be forthcoming.

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As always, there were also a few updates for Biden Rebuilding. Here’s what has happened:

• Biden Administration Updates.  Though there wasn’t much action on voting rights, the Biden administration did start delivering child tax credits this week.They also released a $3.5T budget plan to go with the infrastructure package, which would tackle climate change and healthcare as well as raising taxes for the wealthy.  (Unsurprisingly, Republicans are already fighting about that last part.)  Meanwhile, Attorney General Garland has formally banned prosecutors from seizing journalists’ records unless they have, y’know, some kind of reason to investigate said journalist.  It’s depressing that this is news, but here we are.

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Your New Normal:

• Climate Change Crisis.*  Unsurprisingly, climate change news remains bad for another week, because this is in fact our new normal.  Unprecedented heat waves continue in the Pacific northwest and California, resulting in severe fires and an extreme drought.  Meanwhile, Europe has the opposite problem, with unprecedented floods in Germany and Belgium killing at least 180 people.  As I mentioned above, there is some legislation on the table in Congress right now, but it’s unclear whether that will go through or how much it will ultimately help.

• Crap Court Decisions.  This was also a bad week for federal court decisions, though those are rapidly emerging as a new normal as well.  The Fourth Circuit concluded that a gun law imposing age restrictions was unconstitutional, willfully concluding that “virtually every Amendment” applies to 18-year-olds even though we literally have an amendment about alcohol consumption. And a federal judge in Texas concluded that DACA has always been unconstitutional because… I don’t know, reasons?  I’m gonna be honest with you, we’ve litigated this exact issue multiple times already so it’s pretty broken that this judge is even opining about it. 

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  Speaking of immigration, Ted Cruz was in the news this week for blaming COVID numbers on immigrants, because of course he freaking was, but it seems infinitely more likely that the zillion GOP antivaxxers are playing a role.  That situation is getting worse, by the way, with Tennessee firing an official for vaccine outreach to teens and Florida selling ‘Don’t Fauci My Florida’ merch.  Abroad, however, vaccination is being mandated for health workers, and there’s an in-field push to require the same here in the U.S.  This may be in part because cases are unquestionably rising here due to Delta variant contagion, which also caused a massive Dow drop today.  The CDC also released a report outlining the massive uptick in overdoses that have occurred since the pandemic began, which really should be getting more national attention.  And Canada announced it would reopen the U.S. border in early August, but with everything else going on we may see that walked back before it happens.

• Frito Lay Strike.  I’m sure many folks reading this have heard about the ongoing 500-person Frito Lay strike by now, since it just finished its second week–but I think the horrific circumstances that prompted it deserve more attention.  In addition to regular 84-hour work weeks, which workers say are accomplished by forcing them to work double- and sometimes triple-shifts, a published letter regarding the strike cited the experience of “having us move the body” and return to work when a staffer dropped dead on the factory floor from exhaustion.  Other outlets document high rates of suicide and heart attacks, particularly during heat waves.  Workers also note that their wages have only increased about $0.77 in the past twelve years, despite the constant overtime requirement and heavy demands of the job.  It’s a striking story that really highlights just how much we are living through a second Gilded Age.  

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The Good:

• Awesome Medical Advances. A neurosurgeon was in the news this week for creating a machine that successfully taps into brain waves to aid in verbal communication. Though the technology is still being refined, it has incredible implications for speech therapy, and it’s also just really cool to see this kind of scientific breakthrough. It’s a great piece of news from the health sector!

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I think we can agree it was more than enough. For making it through, you deserve sealions sealioning into an interview and a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me sealions to crash my meetings!

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Somehow, this week’s news feels like a firehose and a slow news week at the same time, which is kind of a neat trick. Though there are only a few main major stories, those stories all have significant and interrelated developments, and the week’s COVID news is particularly extra. All told, the net result is a weird week that makes it hard to see which end is up, but at least I get to write about civil disobedience.

Standard standing reminders still apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a plane flight!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!     

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Cleanup in Aisle 45:

This week’s Election Rejection news has exciting variations after several weeks of Groundhog Day! It’s still bonkers, to be clear, but at least the bonkers comes in a new flavor. Here’s what I have for you this week:

• Insurrection Litigation News. The Laugh Test sure is getting a workout this week. First up we have Representative Mo Brooks arguing he can’t be liable for the insurrection on Capitol Hill because he works on Capitol Hill.(I think this is supposed to be a qualified immunity argument, but it reads more like the congressional equivalent of arguing that you can’t be charged for robbing a liquor store because you work at the liquor store.) Meanwhile, Trump is suing Facebook because something something First Amendment, by which I mean he’s pissed that nobody read his blog.

• Texas Dems Go to Washington. We did have a noteworthy attempt to suppress Native American votes in Montana, and the DNC has unveiled vague plans to do something about the coordinated attack on voting rights generally. But the real story of the week is the Texas Democrats, who once again showed the DNC what it could be when it grows up. You may recall, dear reader, that these folks walked out of a legislative session in late May to protest egregious voter suppression legislation, capitalizing on a state rule that requires 2/3 of the legislative body for any official process. This time, in response to a special session called to reintroduce that bill–which the governor reinforced with all kinds of garbage legislation regarding bail process, trans rights, and critical race theory–the Texas Democrats took that strategy up another notch and simply flew out of the state en masse for the duration. Apparently this isn’t even the first time they’ve used this method to protect voter rights in the state; in 2003, they relocated to Oklahoma over a redistricting fight. The Texas Democrats note in their official statement that this time, they are headed as a group to Washington, DC to advocate for federal voting reform. It’s an extreme technique, but responding to an extreme threat, and I genuinely believe it’s a warranted form of civil disobedience.

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This was also a bit of a weird week for Biden Rebuilding. Here’s what has happened:

• Biden Administration Updates.  Boy howdy are there a lot of Biden updates this week.  The biggest story is Biden’s decision to pull troops from Afghanistan by August 31, ending just about twenty years of ongoing aggression.  In immigration news, ICE is also going to stop detaining people who are pregnant or nursing.  The Department of Education is trying to convince Biden to keep student loans paused past October 2021.  But Biden was busy signing an executive order designed to limit the growth of corporate monopolies and firing the MAGA head of Social Security that was put in place by Spray-Tan Perón.

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Your New Normal:

• Climate Change Crisis.*  In a gruesome expression of new normal, the western side of the country is experiencing another serious and unprecedented heat wave this week, with temperatures in Death Valley reaching 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Unsurprisingly, California is already experiencing wildfires, and studies are suggesting that these changes are definitely part of systemic climate change.  This news coincides with the first successful space tourism voyage, led by Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines, and Jeff Bezos plans to embark soon as well.  Experts predict that this space tourism will likely accelerate climate change as well, because it will create a significant secondary source of black carbon emissions.  So if you were wondering when rich people would next find a new way to break our planet, the answer is apparently “this week.”

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The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  There is a lot of COVID news this week, and a lot of it is pretty weird.  Pfizer is requesting authorization for booster shots for the Delta variant, which has the CDC, FDA, and WHO united in irritation because they all think it’s too soon–and besides, we have like a third of the U.S. still refusing to take the dang vaccine in the first place while other countries struggle to gain access to any doses at all.  Meanwhile, the CDC is also updating its guidelines for children returning to school in the fall, despite rising infection rates in many anti-vax areas of the country and the likelihood of more changes by the time fall rolls around.  And we also learned that it’s possible to contract multiple COVID variants at once, presumably because we have so many variants emerging all over the world (though at present, the Delta strain is the dominant strain in the United States).Somehow, none of this is stopping Republicans from trying to argue that unvaccinated people are a protected class experiencing discrimination.

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The Good:

• Flipping the Scripps. Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde became the first African American champion of the Scripp Spelling Bee this week, correctly spelling ‘murraya’ correctly to win the competition. Incredibly, she already held three Guinness World Records for her achievements in basketball at the time of her win. She sounds pretty Avant-garde!

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So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this bonkers rendition of jock jams and a more consistently improved government.  I’ll be back next week with more restructured and improved news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me fewer meetings at 9am!